The APOEL squad is the thickest in terms of either quality or depth,
but they have given a good account of themselves as a minnow in a
big group. Still being in with a chance of Europa League
football in the last group game shows that they are making some
progress, despite their hammering at home by Real Madrid in the last
round of matches.

They showed against us in
Cyprus that they are capable to having a go and hit the woodwork,
providing more worrying moments than perhaps were expected.
But they come into this game which is a dead rubber for Spurs.
Group won, the only thing to play for is another home win and a bit
more prize money.

The fact that Pochettino has
said he intends to rest five of his top players and give a couple of
youth players an opportunity to play reflects on what the game means
to Tottenham. But this will give the fringe players who take
to the pitch a chance to impress the manager and prove that they can
do a job for the side if called upon. Nkoudou, Vorm, Llorente,
Sterling, Amos, Foyth, Aurier, Sissoko and even Dele and Dembele
need to put in a shift to put their names into the manager's mind
for the months ahead. It is a shame that Lamela wasn't
included in the squad, as he would be a shoe-in for a starting place
to get some competitive game play under his belt. At least
Davinson can give his all with a three match Premier league ban
coming his way

As it is, the side that
Tottenham put out should be good enough to see off the Cypriots
(although most of them aren't). Three at the back, with some
good service to the front men should mean that another three points
come our way, but it may take a bit of time for them to become
accustomed to playing together.

PREDICTION

Tottenham
Hotspur 2
APOEL 0

TOTTENHAM
HOTSPUR TEAM NEWS :
Pochettino will rest Kane, Eriksen, Trippier, Lloris and Dier, with
Alderweireld (hamstring) and Wanyama (knee) out injured, it will
give the squad a good chance to be used with Luke Amos and Kazaiah
Sterling coming in for some experience at the top level.

With what was a much reduced
Tottenham side fielded to take on APOEL of Cyprus to complete the
Group H games, having the top spot in the table already bagged,
Mauricio Pochettino's side went out and did what they had to do to
bring in three points and seal the record of 16 points to win a
group this season's competition. With APOEL offering little
threat on the Spurs goal, it turned out to be a quiet night for
captain Michel Vorm, whose most active involvement was the pre-match
coin toss.

With an assortment of a
handful of first teamers, some fringe players and some youngsters,
it was a reasonably coherent performance, while not thrilling, but
enough to overcome a side who had hopes of finishing third, but not
the confidence to take that hope any further. It looked like
Spurs adopted a shot on sight policy, with Aurier hitting a shot
across the goal in the second minute, while Son followed it up with
another drive a minute later that the keeper got a touch to this
time. Llorente showed good awareness when he headed own a Rose
cross into Son's path and the striker was unable to aim his volley
on goal. When Spurs won a ninth minute free kick, all hell
broke loose in the box. Winks played the ball in and Llorente
won a header that the keeper kept out, Sanchez had a shot
blocked and then Georges-Kevin Nkoudou's effort was stopped on the
line by Rueda. When the ball came back in, Llorente's cross
was nodded just off target by Davinson Sanchez.

The pressure was all on the
APOEL goal and Foyth went close with a header from a Danny Rose
corner, being just too high with his effort. Then, a
fine pass from central midfield out to Aurier on the right from
Harry Winks opened up space for the Ivory Coast defender to put a
cross low into the middle of the box, where Fernando Llorente too
the ball under control with his back to goal. He turned well
and put the ball past the keeper to record his first goal for the
club. The defender could have been a bit closer to him,
but the Spaniard showed his goal-scoring instinct to get the
monkey off his back with his first, of what will hopefully be many,
goals for the club.

Was this to be the goal that
opened the floodgates ? Well, it wasn't for the want of
trying. Son tried a shot from the edge of the box and it was
blocked. A few corners were defended well by the opposition,
then when they tried to go forward, Aurier made a useful
interception and then turned it into an attack, with Sissoko
finishing the move with a header that Perez managed to reach, as
Moussa looked to loop it over him. The second goal wasn't too
long coming and with 32 minutes on the clock, Son passed inside to
Llorente, who laid it back into his path and he bent the ball around
a defender and into the goal just inside the keeper's right hand
post from just right of the D. It was a very well taken and
well-placed shot that left the keeper no chance.

Going 0-2 down seemed to
kick APOEL into attacking action and Aloneftis should have done
better with a cross that eluded Pote in the middle of the goal,
before the same player tried a shot from the left, but Juan Foyth
blocked it for a corner. That was cleared and produced a
chance for Son to try his luck from 30 yards, with the keeper
tipping it wide with a good diving stop.

Paul Miller's half-time chat
recalled European nights of old and when the team re-emerged, the
Spurs XI was unchanged. Vouros had an early opportunity for
APOEL when Spurs were opened up on our left, allowing the defender
to strike a shot across goal that came off Danny Rose and luckily
deflected wide for a corner, which substitute Sallai headed wide.
Tottenham moved the ball forward and found GK on the left, from
where he tried to emulate Sonny and curl a shot in, but the ball
flicked off a defender for a corner. APOEL were a little more
adventurous in the second half, but still failed to trouble Vorm,
with Ebecilio hitting the ball into the crowd with a high shot from
outside the box.

The chances kept coming
Tottenham's way and Son struck a 25 yard free kick over the bar and
Nkoudou forced the keeper to touch an angled shot wide, before Danny
Rose had to be substituted after a strange incident, in which he
appeared to have clashed heads with Sallai and retaliated by pushing
the opponent away, which earned both of them yellow cards and Rose a
cut that could not be stemmed. With Walker-Peters coming
on in his place, the attacking continued down the left and a neat
interchange of passes between Dele and Gk allowed the Frenchman to
go into the box and strike a shot at goal that came off Vouros and
left the keeper helpless once more, as the ball flew past him.
Nkoudou's first goal has been a long time coming, but then he has
not had much playing time, so perhaps this might give him the
confidence when he is called upon and help him integrate into the
side better.

With time running out and
two subs having been used, Pochettino made a great gesture by lining
up Kazaiah Sterling to come on, but with Spurs playing keep ball and
APOEL showing little appetite to get it of them, it was a full six
minutes before the youngster was allowed to enter play as the ball
finally went out of play. He managed one touch, which led to
him being flattened from behind by a defender, with Tottenham
playing out the remaining three minutes of added time and securing a
simple 3-0 win.

The visiting fans had been
noisy throughout, with a good round of applause for their players at
the end, with Tottenham being professional and putting in a good
showing to round off the group. Some players were criticised
by some fans, such as Dele for not scoring a hatful and Llorente for
his contribution, but both players did more than just create and
score. Alli was involve din a lot of play and wasn't hiding
from getting the ball, while Llorente looked like he had a bit of an
understanding with Son, whose finish was classy. Foyth
looked composed throughout, in comparison to Sanchez, who looked as
though he had been rattled by Saturday's sending off, allowing the
ball to get away form him a little too often. Both full backs
did well and despite Winks, Sissoko and Nkoudou wasting some
possession with wayward cross-field passing, all made contributions
to the win.

So, mission accomplished and
now on to the knock-out stage with our opponents to be picked on
Friday. We are restricted to a few clubs and it could be
Juventus or Bayern Munich, with the other options being Shakhtar
Donetsk, Basel, Sevilla or Porto. We will need to be at our
best whoever we get drawn against, so the players who played tonight
will have gained good experience of the competition and what is
needed if they need to come into the side in the future.

Stanford Rivers

PUB
FACT*

APOEL are nicknamed The
Legend, after the film about the Kray twins of the same name
featuring Tom Hardy.

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What you
thought

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Group H Table

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

GD

1

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

6

5

1

0

15

4

16

+11

2

Real Madrid

6

4

1

1

17

7

13

+10

3

Borussia Dortmund

6

0

2

4

7

13

2

-6

4

APOEL

6

0

2

4

2

17

2

-15

Position before match :
1st
Position after match : 1st

* Pub facts may not actually be true, but after a
few pints everyone might think so.